Enter the Dragon

Following the events that play out in the A Summit of Mages story quest, you'll find yourself at the summit and mostly surrounded by fire. Your friends are blocked off from joining you, so you'll have to take care of Saskia in dragon form.

(LEFT) 'Your foe now will be Saskia in the form of a powerful dragon that began the fight by setting the amphitheater on fire.' (RIGHT) 'The dragon will attack from the sides as you ascend the tower.'

Start up the stairs directly ahead of you. You'll find a ledge which serves as an apparent dead end, but you can climb onto another ledge to your right and start up a winding staircase. Sile will alternate between threatening you as you climb and demanding that the dragon kill you. The beast will certainly try; chunks of the wall will fall away against the dragon's onslaught as you ascend, so you should periodically stop to let it breathe fire across your path. Then when the flames subside, continue climbing.

Once you reach the top of the tower, you'll find Sile waiting for you. She claims that she has stabilized a portal. She'll give you some information that warrants proper consideration, but her plan isn't for you to leave this place with that information in your hands. She tells you that the dragon will kill you here, then tries to teleport out of sight. However, something has gone awry with her device. Though moments ago she threatened you with death, she calls now for you to remove the crystal and save her. Do as she asks and she'll give you some more information before teleporting out of sight. Otherwise, you can leave her where she is and after a moment of inactivity on your part, she will die.

Now the dragon attacks by breaking through the wall. You must fight its head and claws. It will swipe at you furiously and will occasionally stop to breathe fire if you back away to try to get out of range from its claws. You can't really hide anywhere, since it's not possible to start back down the stairs, so try to get the dragon to start breathing fire and then you can roll in and attack from the opposite side to get in a few swipes before retreating. Your goal here isn't to kill the dragon, just to wound it enough that it thrashes about a bit and partially destroys the tower.

(LEFT) 'Hack at the dragon's neck and head with your silver sword.' (RIGHT) 'You can save Saskia with the dagger only if you obtained it by helping Philippa.'

Now the fight resumes, though your progress up to this point is conveniently saved so that if you happen to fall in battle, you don't have to start fresh from the beginning of the duel with the dragon. Climb up some ledges to your right and you'll arrive at what is now the top of the tower.

429 Mashing buttons will get you nowhere!

Error 429 Mashing buttons will get you nowhere!

Mashing buttons will get you nowhere!

Guru Meditation:

XID: 710062102

Varnish cache server

The dragon attacks again, and now you should repeat the process that worked previously. Your foe is freer to move around now and that complicates things a bit, but the same general strategy remains unchanged. The big difference is that periodically, the dragon will retreat out of sight. Then you know that it is about to either pounce from an edge if you get too close, or it will send its tail up and the tail will lash out to the side to strike you. The tail does a lot of damage and it moves surprisingly quickly, so hopefully you've not taken so much damage up to that point that it finishes off your life meter. Keep fighting in spite of the increased odds against your success and when you finally deal enough damage, a quick-time event follows.

If you input the commands in time, a scene will follow as the dragon is impaled on a tree. If you didn't rescue Philippa, you now you have a choice. You can kill it or leave it where it lies. If you followed a path through the chapter that involved helping Philppa instead of Triss Merigold (while aligned with Iorveth), you have a special dagger and a third option automatically plays out as you cure the dragon of its curse. Then you can talk to Saskia to learn more about the future of Vergen. Once Saskia's fate is determined, another scene follows and it leads right into the final story quest: Epilogue.